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Library creative Laboratory

2015-01-06

A final meeting of the “Library creative Laboratory” for new professionals was held in Kaliningrad on 6-7.12.2012 where the year results were summed up.

“Library creative Laboratory” is an International platform for the sharing of information, experience, ideas and elaborating innovative projects. One of the main tasks of the Laboratory is to find new ways of working with modern youth society understanding the special needs of this target group. Youngsters' lifestyle has changed greatly during the recent years thus their interests and demands to the library have changed as well.

Within the Laboratory it was held a number of events aimed to strengthen young librarians’ society of Kaliningrad region and Nordic countries, develop their professional skills and interests: 2 seminars in Kaliningrad (14-15.05, 4-5.06), 2 study visits to Denmark-Sweden (10-13.06) and Finland (30.09-03.10). Besides, two Labs coordinators participated in 2 unconferences this summer in Cycling for libraries and IFLAcamp for new professionals.

Also the most important and significant events and projects in 2012 which were launched by the Laboratory participants were presented at the meeting – “Cartoon-club” (Gusev), “Library night”, “Treasure hunt”, “Human library” (Kaliningrad).

At this Laboratory meeting there were special guests from Finland– three representatives of the organizing group of one of the most unusual and ambitious projects in the world library community “Cycling for libraries”. They made the presentation of their project for Kaliningrad Labs participants.

Projects

Gusev city library was working on creating Cartoon-club for more than a year. The club has started in 2012 after all necessary equipment had been bought. Now both adults and children can attend the club and learn how to make the cartoons themselves (for free). Nowadays there are a lot of discussions about the library functions - modern libraries are more than just a book storage, they are turning into educational and cultural centers. The opening of Cartoon-club is also confirming this tendency.

“Human library” – is an international social project created in Denmark in 2000. Since then it has been successfully implemented in many countries. The first “Human library” in Kaliningrad was held in 2012 by Children’s library named after H.C.Andersen in cooperation with volunteer Ivan Markov, the student of psychological faculty. The project is oriented on overcoming the stereotypes. The books here are real people with their life stories – bard, ex-punk, defender of urban block-stones, theater director and many others. “Human library” encourages the understanding in the society in many ways. The project in Kaliningrad turned into a real successful one and in November one of the central TV channels NTV made a report about it (http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/369578/ ).

As usual a “creative practice” was organized for the Laboratory participants – this time it was a literary game “Night treasure hunt”. In such a practical way one of the projects was presented. “Night treasure hunt” was elaborated by the Central city library named after A.P.Chekhov and is being used now mostly to attract young adults to the library. A great success of the “Library night” which was held in April 2012 within the first All-Russian action inspired the “Chekhov’s librarians’ to create a new “night” literary project.

In modern world there is a wide range of different entertainments so the library is in the tough competitive conditions. In order to attract the attention of the society the libraries have to be in some way surprising using unusual forms of work, breaking stereotypes about the library as a quiet and boring place.

The late time of the event encouraged the public interest but these two projects are absolutely different. “Library night” is more a PR event but “Night treasure hunt” despite of its entertainment components (costumed characters, search for encrypted assignments in the darkness with flashlights, musical background), differs by more educational focus - the participants will not be able to answer the questions and come through the whole route not knowing the plot of the certain novels. It is a good method to make the high school pupils interested in reading (first of all within the school program).

“Cycling for libraries” is organized by the initiative group of Finnish librarians and supported by Ministry of culture and education in Finland. This project was presented by 3 of the organizers – Mace Ojala, Sebastian Slotte and Katya Shklyar.

Mace Ojala, Sebastian Slotte and Katya Shklyar

Cycling for libraries. photo: Entresse Library

“Cycling for libraries” is neither a conference nor a sport competition. It's something unusual, a little crazy, what has never existed in the library world before.

This year it was the second “Cycling for libraries”, the first one took place in 2011, and its route was from Copenhagen to Berlin. In 2012 Baltic countries were chosen for the unconference – Vulnius-Riga-Tallinn. The first idea of “Cycling for libraries” belonged to 2 Finish librarians - Jukka Pennanen and Mace Ojala. It happened rather spontaneously: the plan of the private bike ride Copenhagen-Berlin had turned into the international event after making the decision to invite other librarians with them.

The main aim of “Cycling for libraries”, why it was created for – is to join librarians and library lovers of the different nationalities, cultures, ages, specializations and to place them into unusual, informal conditions of unconference – with no official schedules, reports, chairs and tables. When people find themselves in the informal situation they always start talking more frankly like they wouldn't do for example at the official seminar. During “Cycling for libraries” they had 11 days for it!

It considered that at the conferences the most important agreements, discussions and negotiations happen during the breaks. So “Cyc4Lib” is exactly such a 11-days break!

Another aim of “Cycling for libraries” is to become visible. Librarians should step out of their desks and declare about themselves aloud. It exactly what the participants of “Cycling for libraries” were doing passing by the central streets with police escorts, dressed in bright colored vests, ringing bells and greeting people in different languages. The most quiet profession suddenly is getting quite loud. It attracts the attention of the society. In nearly every city and little town the participants were greeted by mayors or other representatives of the local authorities. It's very important concerning nowadays world tendency of reducing the libraries' staff, branches and their budgets.

One more special feature in this project should be mentioned – a team work. There was no strict schedule or structure at “Cycling for libraries” but at the same time its organization was at the highest level. A great respect should be given to the excellent work of its organizing team. 13 librarians from Finland (Helsinki, Espoo and Turku) can be considered as an ideal example of the team work. During the whole trip there was not a single fault or a conflict situation. No matter how hard it was and what the day was in a row every participant felt in safe surrounded by their care and attention.

The final theme of the Laboratory was “Library and social-media: new ways of communication with patrons”.

Libraries should keep pace with the changes of the youth’ interests and habits and use blogging, wikis, social networking and digital reference services in order to attract young people. Using different Internet recourses is the most effective ways for the libraries to promote their services and activity as a whole.

Thus, in 2012 a facebook page “HelMet по-русски” was opened (http://www.facebook.com/HelmetPoRusski?fref=ts ) in order to keep the Russian-speaking population of Helsinki Metropolitan Area well informed about the activity of the library system HelMet. Though an original Finish version of this page has already been working for several years but for the certain group of people who don’t know Finish language quite well it can be difficult to surf in such a flood of information. “HelMet по-русски” publishes just selected news related to Russian-speaking activities and services of HelMet libraries. At the Laboratory this project was presented by its author and initiator Katya Shklyar from Sello library (Espoo, Finland).

In 2012 nearly all Laboratory meetings had a special focus on presenting libraries in social network. In May Lab participants from 5 municipalities – Kaliningrad, Gusev, Svetly, Svetlogorsk and Chernyakhovsk – made 11 libraries’ pages and groups in Facebook and Vkontakte. In subsequent an active work continues not in all of them. Mostly it’s caused by the lack of participants’ knowledge about the work with these recourses. In order to improve this situation it is planned to start Russian simplify version of the International project «23 things to do» (http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.ru/ ). Mace Ojala, one of two designers of «23 things to do» in Finland in 2008, presented this project to Russian Lab participants in details. This is a discovery learning program designed to encourage staff to explore new technologies and new Internet tools by doing 23 Things in a certain timeframe (learn about wikis and tagging, set up the blogs, explore flickr and so on). The coordinators work with the participants remotely as this is a self-discovery program. Originally it was developed by Helene Blowers from Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (USA) in 2006. Now hundreds of other libraries all over the world adapt her or other variations of the program to suit their particular organizations’ aims.

In 2012 the Laboratory participants from 5 municipalities (Kaliningrad, Gusev, Nesterov, Svetly and Chernyakhovsk) have elaborated 8 projects focused on young adults mostly.

One of the indicators of the Laboratory success can be the fact that in 2012 Russian Library Association (RLA) got interested in Kaliningrad Laboratory work. Two articles were published in the Information bulletin of RLA (№65) – “Library creative Laboratory. Modern library for modern youth” (pages 28-30, http://www.rba.ru/content/resources/bulletin/ib65/rba65.pdf ) and “The unconferences Cycling for libraries and IFLAcamp from the point of view of the Kaliningrad librarians” (pages 144-146, about participating of 2 Labs coordinators in these two unconferences).

Besides Russian Association, in 2012 the Laboratory established the cooperation with International Federation of Libraries Associations – its Special interest group for new professionals IFLAcamp. They made an agreement of holding IFLAcamp-Lab - International Library creative Laboratory in Kaliningrad on 23-25, May. On the final day of IFLAcamp-Lab a mini “Cycling for libraries” is planed as well (the route is being discussed).